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In the Toronto art scene, 2012 might be remembered as the year of Jessica Bradley.

Over the past 12 months, the art dealer has risen to new heights internationally — and many hope Toronto’s art profile is breaking through with her.

In May, one of Bradley’s artists, Shary Boyle, was announced as Canada’s representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale — the world’s most prestigious art event. In October, Bradley was the only contemporary Canadian dealer at the vaunted Frieze London art fair. Upon returning, she opened an additional 2,700-square-foot Toronto location. And in early December, she was the only contemporary Canadian dealer at Art Basel Miami Beach, North America’s largest art fair.

“It’s certainly a big year in terms of the gallery shifting into another phase,” Bradley says. Not one to rest on her laurels, she adds, “It’s really just the beginning.”

Indeed, there’s still much ahead: holding the first Canadian solo show for ultra-hot Brooklyn-based, Toronto-born artist Julia Dault in January; doing advance support work for and then attending Venice in June; and striking a balance between the original Dundas West and new Carleton Village spaces by September.

Though 2012 has grown her cachet, Bradley has long been distinguished on the Canadian art-dealing circuit by having worked as a curator at two of the nation’s largest art museums: the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. During a combined 16 years at these institutions, she commissioned three Venice Biennale projects — more than any other Canadian curator.

“There aren’t any other dealers in Canada who have the same pedigree” confirms Kitty Scott, curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Glowing CV aside, the 64-year-old Bradley notes she’s “not been a planned-career kind of person.” A love for art in general, and contemporary art in particular, has been her guiding star.

Growing up in Ottawa, Bradley loved drawing and printmaking. Later, she studied art history at Carleton University. After graduating, she worked at the Canada Council and its Art Bank. In between museum stints, she freelanced, studied and raised two children with her husband, artist Geoffrey James. In the lean years, she says, “It didn’t matter if I maxed out my VISA card, I was going to get to Venice and Documenta”— the top-end curated international art exhibitions.

In May 2005 — two years after leaving the about-to-reno AGO — she opened her own gallery at Dundas West and Dufferin. The contrast to her museum years couldn’t have been more dramatic: the massive exhibition spaces, substantial travel budgets, dozens of support staff and colleagues, and regular paycheques were now well behind her. Instead, there was a ground-floor storefront barely 500 square feet in size — at that time, well away from the beaten art path — where she footed the bill for (or just plain did) all the shipping, cleaning and marketing.

The advantage of going solo? Being able to continue working with talented living artists — who she credits with much of her success — and enjoying a measure of freedom, as finances have allowed.

“There isn’t any private money or backer or partner. . . or even a banker husband,” Bradley jokes. She’s grown by combining risky aesthetic sensibilities (like taking on once-relatively-unknown artists like Boyle) with cautious operational sense (even her “big” new gallery is modest by many art-world standards).

With the new Jessica Bradley Annex near St. Clair and Old Weston Road, she hopes to revive a founding vision of her gallery — doing group shows of international and Canadian artists she doesn’t necessarily represent.

“That’s because curator in me is not going to, you know, totally lie down and go away,” Bradley quips. “The question is when is it affordable, and how is it affordable depending on what you want to put together?”

Others in the Toronto scene are already benefiting — and hope to benefit further — from Bradley’s success.

Michael Klein, owner of MKG127, recently moved across the street from Bradley’s Dundas West space following years on Ossington. Bradley actually helped him find his new, larger storefront.

“Hers is one of the best galleries in the city, if not the country,” Klein says. “So, you know, it’s good to be neighbours.”

In his new locale, Klein’s had visits from collectors he’s never met before. He can imagine a global-scale effect too.

“Hopefully, Jessica will make some headway for Toronto to be recognized internationally” like Vancouver and its art scene is, Klein says. “Then, say, if I apply to Frieze or Art Basel, I have more of a chance of getting in too, because the jury will have the sense that Toronto is an interesting art city.”

If there’s a growing weight of civic expectation on Bradley’s shoulders, the silver-haired dynamo doesn’t seem burdened by it.

“It applies across the board, and it applies even more particularly to this crazy thing of running a commercial gallery,” she says. “You either evolve or you stand still.”

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